Pippi's Big Mistake
by Pre-Animation Man
Summary: As all the other people panic and flee at Pippi's announcement that the earth is breaking up, a brave lion steps in and brings sense to the situation


In th early one morning, a foolish Pippi Longstocking lay sleeping in the house. Sunlight shone through the leaves, warming the earth, and the Pippi Longstocking began to stir.

As he drifted contentedly between waking and sleeping, a foolish thought crossed his mind. What if the earth broke up? The Pippi Longstocking sat up, now wide awake. "What if the earth broke up today?" he said out loud. And the foolish Pippi Longstocking began to listen for signs of danger.

CRASH! He heard a loud sound behind him. And without looking around, the Pippi Longstocking jumped up and ran off, yelling, 'The earth is breaking up! The earth is breaking up!"

Soon he passed another kids. "Say, what's the hurry? Why are you running?" the Tommy asked. But the Pippi Longstocking just shouted out, "The earth's breaking up! The earth's breaking up! Run for your life." And he sped by.

"The earth's breaking up? Oh, no!" cried the other kids, and away he ran after that first tired girl. They passed a Annika. "What's happen-ing?" the Annika called out. "The earth's breaking up!" they panted. "Run." And run he did.

Now the Three kids passed a sleepy bear. The bear stretched and rubbed his eyes. "What's going on? Why are you running?" he asked. "Stop and tell me." But the kids just kept on running and shouting, "The earth's breaking up! Run. Run."

'The earth's breaking up," repeated the bear, confused. The earth's breaking up? Why then, I'd better get going." And the bear started running too. Soon they came upon a second bear. He was chewing a piece of dripping honeycomb and batting at the bees buzzing all around him. "Hey, what's going on? Why are you running?" he asked.

'The earth's breaking up! That's why we are running!" they yelled as they ran past. "Run. Run."

The bear scrambled to his feet. 'The earth's breaking up?" he said to himself. "Oh, my gosh! There's no time to lose." And pushing the last of the honeycomb into his mouth, he started running too.

Farther along in the forest an elephant with half-closed eyes stood resting beneath a large shade tree. His huge ears fanned slowly back and forth, and his tail flicked, this way and that, sweeping off the droning flies.

Suddenly his ears fanned forward and stopped. His eyes opened wide. Three frightened kids and two panicked adults burst through the bushes. "What's going on?" he trumpeted in surprise. "Why are you all running?"

But the terrified animals only shouted, "The earth's breaking up. Run for your life!" And they were gone.

"The earth's breaking up," rumbled the elephant. "Why, if the earth's breaking up, there's no time to lose. I'm going with you." And trumpeting wildly he too charged off, his tail pointing straight out behind him.

Everyone ran along the path. The pounding of their feet disturbed a snake sleeping on a warm rock ledge in the midday sun. He opened one eye. He opened the other. He flicked out his sharp, pink tongue and lifted his smooth scaled head. Suddenly three screaming kids, two moaning adults and a trumpeting elephant stormed past.

"What'sss happening?" hissed the snake anxiously. "Why are you all running?"

"The earth is breaking up," cried Everyone. "It's the end. Run for your life!" And they were gone.

"What?" said the snake. "The earth's breaking up? Why I'd better get sliding." And uncoiling himself, he glided down from his warm ledge and slid rapidly after the others.

He passed another snake and another and another. When they heard what was happening, they too slid over boulders, under bushes, and around trees, following the other terrified animals. Soon an awful hissing, trumpeting, moaning and screaming filled the forest.

Now up on a mountaintop overlooking this forest was a brave lion, still asleep. The lion heard all the noise. He opened his golden eyes. Looking out over the forest, he saw Everyone running, running, running. He couldn't see why they were running but he could see that unless someone stopped them they would run right over the edge of a cliff and be killed. "Someone should help them," the lion said to himself. "Why, I'll help."

He rose to his feet and shook his heavy mane. Gathering his strength, he took a tremendous lion leap, waaay out, and landed in front of the terrified animals, who came screeching and panting to a sudden halt.

"RAAARRRGGGHHH!" roared the lion. "What is the matter? Why are you running?"

"The earth isn't breaking up, you silly creatures," the lion said. "Look. Here's the earth solid as it's ever been." And he struck the ground a blow with his paw to prove it. "Who told you that the earth was breaking up?"

"It wasss the elephant," hissed the snakes.

"The adults," trumpeted the elephant.

"kids," moaned the adults.

"It was him" shouted the kids, pointing to the foolish tired girl.

''Well, tired girl, where did you see the earth breaking up?" the lion asked in a gende voice.

"Back there under the apple tree. I heard it," stammered the foolish tired girl.

"Hmmm," said the lion to himself. "He heard it? And under an apple tree?" Then he had an idea.

"Come," he said. "Get on my back. We'll go together and find out what it really was that scared you."

"Oh, no," protested the Pippi Longstocking. "It's too dangerous. I can't go back there." And he wouldn't move.

Then the kids said, "OK, I'll go!" and jumped up on the lion's back. The lion took one, two, three tremendous lion leaps back to the tree. He stalked around sniffing the earth. At last he found what he was looking for. There under the tree lay an apple that had fallen from the branches above.

"There's your earth breaking up, silly Pippi Longstocking," he said. "You heard this apple hit the ground and thought it was the earth breaking up."

"Oh, my," said the kids. "What a mistake. What a fuss over nothing."

"Well," the lion said, "we must go back and tell the others." Once again the lion took one, two, three tremendous leaps. When they stood before Everyone once again, the Pippi Longstocking tried to explain. "It seems that I've made a terrible, uh, mistake. You see this apple? Well, I thought the sound it made when it fell to the ground was, urn, the sound of the earth breaking up. You can all understand that, uh, can't you?"

"RRRAAARRRGGGHHH!" roared the lion. "Wait. You all ran within out finding out what was frightening you. Remember that, next time something scares you. If you'll only stop and see what it is, you may find out that there's nothing really to be afraid of at all."

"Why, you're right," said all Everyone. "Next time we'll do that."

"Me too," said the Pippi Longstocking.

Then the lion took a leap back up onto his mountaintop. He lay down, calmly surveyed the peaceful forest below, yawned and went back to sleep.

The Pippi Longstocking, still holding the apple, hopped back to the tree. He lay down beneath the branches, sighed contentedly, and took a big bite of the apple.

And that's the end of the story.


End file.
